When Angela Kelley came to TRS Healthcare in September of 2008, she was searching for a change of scenery. What she found, though, was a place at a company she truly believes in.
For the last five years, Angela has worked as the Operations Manager for TRS Managed Services and TRS International, helping to bring on new healthcare facility clients and overseeing other logistics related to workforce staffing solutions. But at the start of her career with TRS Healthcare, Angela was a travel nurse recruiter.
“I’m not really a natural salesperson,” said Angela. “But I decided if I was going to do this, I had to learn everything about the industry.”
Though she took to recruitment work with ease, unfortunately, the same month Angela joined TRS Healthcare, the 2008 recession began, which impacted the nursing industry overall and made it more difficult to find job opportunities for travel nurses.
“To be a recruiter new in the industry [at that time] took a lot of tears—a lot of prayers. But we climbed back out of it, and I was able to get people working.”
Fifteen years later, Angela continues to thrive as part of the TRS Healthcare team. She’s held a variety of positions within the company and worked in different departments, moving from recruitment to credentialing, and then to her current role supporting hospitals’ hiring needs as a leader in the Managed Services team.
In this role, Angela not only oversees the management of workforce staffing services for TRS Healthcare’s affiliated facilities and vendors, but she also works closely with executive leadership on new business development for the company.
Throughout her time with TRS Healthcare, Angela has seen the company evolve, grow its staff, and respond to high demand for travel nurses before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Juggling different roles and experiencing change is nothing new to Angela, who is a wife, mother, grandmother, and active member of her church. Nor is her connection to travel nursing new. Prior to working in the industry, she saw first-hand the impact travel healthcare professionals can have.
Shortly before coming to TRS Healthcare, Angela and her family suffered the loss of her son. Though the loss was incredibly hard for Angela, she was profoundly touched by the care, kindness, and support of healthcare staff during her son’s time at various hospitals—including a travel nurse, who the family grew to know and trust.
Angela and her family first met this travel nurse while her son was at Dallas Children’s hospital for a four-month stay. Coincidentally, when they were back home in Arkansas, the family reconnected with this same nurse, who ended up on a travel nursing assignment at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in the Dialysis department, where Angela’s son received care.
“It was really neat that we had that continuity of care,” Angela remarked. “She had a really good rapport with [my son]…It was a valuable connection.”
Angela credits this experience as inspiration for her approach to her work in the travel nurse recruitment industry. “I truly believe we can make a difference,” she added. “I believe in our company, and I want to see it grow. I want to be part of that.”
Through her work, Angela continues to empower those around her and make an impact each day. Whether it’s supporting her daughters, traveling with her husband, playing with her grandchildren, caring for her pets, or tackling whatever challenges come her way at work, Angela plays all these roles with an earnest commitment to achieve something bigger.
